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opy 1 HE C ^USE OF EDUCATION^IN TENNESSEE. 



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DELIVERED TO THE YOUNG GENTLEMEN 



ADMITTED TO THE DEGREE OF 



iBsa®wi®m®m ®w> <£*&£?&» 



AT THE 



FIRST COMMENCEMENT 



OF THE 



TFWrTlRSXEY OP MAg^TXLLl 



OCTOBER 4, 1826, 



PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY. 



NEW EDITION 



JfcashfotUe: 

HUXT, TAItDTFF AND CO, PKINTEK3 

2833. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 

Cumberland College was incorporated in 1806. It was re- 
organized and put in operation in the autumn of 1824. During 
the following year, another Cumberland College was established 
at Princeton in Kentucky. To prevent the inconveniences likely 
to result from this identity of names, the Legislature enacted, in 
November 1828, that the corporate style of this institution should 
thenceforward be "The University of Nashville." As this alter- 
ation however took place a month after the delivery and first pub- 
lication of the ensuing address, the ancient name is still retained 
wherever it was then used, except in the title page. 



ADDRESS. 



Young Gentlemen: 

Your academical career is now ended; and you have just 
received the usual honors and testimonials of this institution. 
According to the opinion which too generally prevails, you 
have completed your studies. This, I am persuaded, is not 
your own opinion. You have already made a juster estimate 
of your attainments; and of.the vast and variegated field for 
future investigation which still lies before you, and which 
invites your assiduous cultivation. If you have learned 
how to study, and have acquired a thirst for knowledge, you 
will continue to study and to learn while you live. This, 
indeed, is the grand aim and object of all elementary educa- 
tion. It is to discipline the mind, to develop faculty, to ma- 
ture the judgment, to refine the taste, to chasten the moral 
sense, to awaken and invigorate intellectual energy; and 
to furnish the requisite materials upon which to erect 'the 
noblest superstructure. Hitherto, you have been laying 
the foundation; and serving that kind of apprenticeship which 
may enable you to march forward by your own diligent and 
persevering efforts, Do not imagine, therefore, that your 
work is done. You have only commenced your studies. — 
Whatever may be your future profession, pursuit, business 
or destination, let books, science, literature, be your constant 
companions. 

Every man, who intends to do the greatest possible good 
in his day and generation, will, every day, seek to acquire 
additional information. He will gather it from every source 
within his reach. His experience, his observation, his 
intercourse with the world, with men and things, his daily 
occupations, his incidental associations, the great volume of 
nature, ever open and spread out to his view, the intellec- 
tual treasures of a hundred generations which have passed 
away, the records of heavenly truth and wisdom — all will 
conspire to increase his stores, and to qualify him for a 
greater and a wider sphere of useful and virtuous exertion. 



a 

All the great and good men, who have enlightened, 
adorned and purified the world by their labours and their 
counsels, have been indefatigable in the pursuit of know- 
ledge, up to the last moment of their existence. No matter 
how exalted any man's genius may be — history demon- 
strates, that, genius has never achieved great things with- 
out industry. 

The lawyer, physician or divine, who limits his range 
of thought and study to the mere mechanical rules, or pre- 
cedents, or forms, or prescriptions of his professional di- 
rectory, will never become eminent in his own particular 
profession, nor will he ever be distinguished as a man. He 
may pass along with tolerable respectability, countenanced 
by the multitude of his brethren who are like himself, among 
a people not wise enough to distinguish noise from sense, or 
technical jargon and pedantry from learning and argument. 
But bring him into the presence of the master-spirits of the 
land or of the age, and he instantly shrinks into his native 
insignificance. Mere professional business of any kind, 
when a man never makes an excursion or voyage of dis- 
covery beyond it, always tends to narrow and contract the 
mind. He may be expert in small things, in petty official 
details, like an artisan in his workshop; but take him out of 
his daily routine, from off the beaten track, and he is bewil- 
dered and confused, or opinionated, obstinate and illiberal. 
He cannot grasp a great subject, nor comprehend a new 
moral theorem or proposition. He will discuss the inter- 
ests of an empire as he would treat the cause of a client, 
or the case of a patient, or a point in theology. Now all 
these may be important matters; and so is the manufacture 
of a nail and of a pin. But a man of intellect ought to 
aspire after higher objects, and nobler attainments, and more 
expanded views. 

In England, even the humblest artificers and mechanics, 
tradesmen and farmers, in almost every town, are beginning 
to form associations for mental improvement. They have 
procured libraries — they read literary and scientific jour- 
nals — attend lectures on chemistry, political economy, me- 
chanics, natural philosophy, history, mathematics — they 
study and converse with each other at every spare moment 






or leisure hour. In a few years, they will take the lead of 
half the professional men in the kingdom, unless the latter 
condescend to follow their example. A similar spirit of 
enterprise and improvement has already appeared in our 
larger cities, and its march will be rapid, and its effects most 
salutary. Our youthful candidates for the learned profes- 
sions, therefore, must prepare to enter the lists of honoura- 
ble competition with a new and vigorous race of rival com- 
batants for the prize of intellectual supremacy. 

I know not what are to be your future professions or 
occupations. Every honest calling ought to be esteemed 
honorable. I address you "as moral and intellectual beings — 
as the patriot citizens of a great republic. You may be mer- 
chants, mechanics, farmers, manufacturers — and yet be emi- 
nently distinguished and eminently useful, if you will per- 
severe in seeking after knowledge and in making a proper 
use of it. The Medici — Necker — Ricardo — were mer- 
chants or bankers: Franklin was a mechanic: Washington 
was a farmer. By far the greater part of our countrymen 
are and must be farmers. They must be educated; or, 
what is the same thing, educated men must become farmers, 
if they would maintain their just influence and ascendency 
in the state. I cannot wish for the alumni of Cumberland 
College, a more healthful, independent, useful, virtuous, ho- 
norable, patriotic employment, than that ofjgricultu re. Nor 
is there any condition in life more favourable to the calm pur- 
suits of science, philosophy and religion; and to all that 
previous training which ultimately constitutes wisdom and 
inflexible integrity. Should our college eventually become 
the grand nursery of intelligent, virtuous farmers, I shall 
esteem it the most highly favoured institution in our coun- 
try. I have long thought that our college graduates often 
mistake their true path to honour and usefulness, in making 
choice of a learned profession, instead of converting agricul- 
ture into a learned profession, as it ought to be, and thereby 
obtaining an honest livelihood in the tranquil shades of the 
country. 

I mean not, however, on the present occasion, to offer 
any advice as to the choice of a profession. Whatever 
station you may occupy, or whatever be your pursuits, 



8 

never cease to gain knowledge and to do good, as God, in 
his providence, shall give you opportunity. 

But, in the second place, as you have yourselves enjoyed 
superior advantages of education, it is reasonable to expect 
that you will be the steady, enlightened, zealous friends and 
advocates of education, in every degree, and to the utmost 
extent, which the welfare of the community may require. 

I present to your patronage and support the grand cause 
of education, in all its purity and excellence, and without 
restriction as to its objects. 

That learning has been often abused and perverted — 
that many systems of education have proved ineffectual, 
useless or pernicious — that most existing seminaries might 
be greatly improved — 1 freely admit. Still, these admissions 
detract nothing from the intrinsic value of knowledge, nor 
from the paramount importance of education. The native 
character, tendency and genuine effects of any principle, 
system or institution, must decide its utility, and its claims 
to general adoption and support; and not the partial evils 
which human artifice, or folly, or wickedness may render it 
the instrument or the occasion of introducing and propa- 
gating. Under the plea and sanction of religion and liberty, 
our world has been filled with tumult, convulsion, crime 
and suffering. Are religion and liberty therefore worthless, 
or injurious to mankind? Would you banish religion and 
liberty from the earth, because both religion and liberty 
have been most grossly profaned; and employed, in ten thou- 
sand ways, to deceive, oppress, and degrade mankind? Then 
oppose not — condemn not education. The want of it has 
occasioned most of the misery and crime which have been 
inflicted on our world under the specious names and impos- 
ing authority of religion and liberty. When or where did 
crafty ecclesiastics or politicians ever succeed, under the 
guise of religion or liberty, in cheating the people out of 
both, except where the people were so ignorant that they 
could comprehend neither the one nor the other? Without 
competent knowledge, or without education, there can be 
neither religion nor liberty. Religion implies knowledge. 
Its simplest principles and dictates — its plainest duties and 
requirements cannot be understood or performed, without 



9 

previous instruction. This is true of every religion yet 
known — and of every religion that can be conceived — ol 
paganism and theism — as well as of Christianity. Nor can 
liberty be appreciated, acquired, defended or maintained, 
except by those who have learned what liberty means. If 
religion and liberty, therefore, be$ in any degree, desirable; 
if they be indispensable to the happiness and perfection of 
our nature; if they be justly prized above all other bless- 
ings which bountiful Heaven has placed within the reach 
of the human family; then is the cause of education suffi- 
ciently established. 

By education, we mean, such a thorough cultivation of all 
the faculties of our youth, as will best prepare them for the 
greatest usefulness and happiness. Let this definition be 
kept in view during the whole progress of our argument 
and illustrations. Those of my hearers who have reflected 
much on this subject, will not expect any benefit or infor- 
mation from the discussion. They will patiently bear with 
me, however, while I endeavor, in a plain popular way, to 
secure the good-will of this audience, generally, to a cause 
which maybe emphatically styled the cause of the people 

Schools or Seminaries of education maybe classed as fol- 
lows: namely, 

1. Primary or Infant Schools. 2. Common Schools. 3. 
Academies, or Classical or Intermediate Schools. 4. Col- 
leges or Universities. 5. Special or Professional Schools: 
Such as those for Law, Divinity, Medicine, Military or 
Naval Science, Agriculture, Architecture, or any of the 
useful or liberal arts. 

My remarks will be limited chiefly to Common Schools 
and Colleges. 

But, in the outset, I beg leave to state distinctly, that, I 
do not ascribe omnipotence, or any uncontrollable sway to 
education. I do not go the length of asserting that man is 
absolutely and invincibly the creature of circumstances or 
of education. That he may be made an angel or a demon, 
or something between both, by any discipline or accidental 
associations. Still, to a certain extent, and with certain 
qualifications, this is true; and it is a truth of revelation, no 
less than a deduction from reason and experience. To ex- 



10 

hibit at once, and in pretty bold relief, the natural province, 
and legitimate power of education, I refer you to an extreme 
case or two, and to others of every day's occurrence. Sup- 
pose a person were to grow up, from infancy to manhood, in 
a desert or forest, without ever seeing a human being or 
hearing a human voice — in what respects would such a wild 
man differ from other wild animals? Would he speak, or 
think, or reason, or discriminate between good and evil, 
virtue and vice, happiness and misery? Would he not re- 
semble the bears and the wolves of which he had been the 
nursling, the pupil and the companion — and, like them, 
shun the presence and the abodes of men? Again, were 
the son of a Solomon or a Bacon to be trained from his 
birth among savages — would he not become a savage in 
sentiment, manners, and habits? Indeed, it requires but a 
rapid glance at the nations of the earth, to perceive that 
the great mass of the people are every where formed by 
the circumstances, associations and instruction to which they 
are subjected. Where these are most auspicious, human 
nature assumes its most attractive and dignified character. 
Where these are most unfavourable, human nature appears 
in its most abject and degraded form. This, as a general 
truth or fact, none will dispute. If we pass from the ten 
thousand varieties of national character, and the ten thou- 
sand gradations of national excellence or depravity, to indi- 
viduals of the most enlightened and most highly favoured 
country in Christendom, we shall behold similar effects 
continually resulting from similar causes. 

It requires a good deal of patient investigation and mi- 
nute analysis to ascertain how much of good and evil may 
be instilled into the mind of every child, by the means just 
specified, even when most destitute of regular and formal 
education. Thus, a child could never learn to speak, or to 
utter articulate sounds, without instruction; or, what is the 
same thing, without an opportunity of imitating others. 
Yet every child, not destitute of the proper organs in a 
sound state, does learn to speak, and that too, without being 
sent to school for the purpose. Thus, then, the first and 
most important of all arts is insensibly acquired at an age 
when it is usually thought superfluous or useless to com- 



11 

mence the work of instruction. Further, of the many hun- 
dreds or thousands of dialects actually spoken by mankind, 
the child always learns the language of its parents and 
companions: and he learns it more or less perfectly accord- 
ing to their habitual use of it. If they pronounce it correct- 
ly, and speak it with grammatical accuracy, purity and ele- 
gance, he will speak it agreeably to the best rules of or- 
thoepy, grammar and rhetoric, without an effort, and previ- 
ously to the knowledge of any rule whatever. In the same 
manner, and with the same facility, a child might acquire a 
number of languages, as experience has fully demonstrated. 
Now, this simple fact proves, first, that much, very much 
is actually learned by every child in infancy: and secondly, 
that the amount and perfection of this knowledge depend 
entirely on the opportunities and advantages possessed. 
Were we to extend this analysis to other particulars or de- 
partments; to principles and habits, moral, economical, 
physical, intellectual, religious, we should find the infant 
mind yielding to a daily and almost invisible influence, 
which may mark its character and destiny through life. 

How important then to human happiness is it, that, the 
first school — the infant school — the parental school — should 
be a good one? Here is the great nursery of human weal 
or wo. Now, I care not whether children ever go to a 
public school or not, if parents will keep a better school at 
home, and do their duty to their offspring. I care not 
whether our youth go to college or not, if parents can and 
will teach them more effectually by their own firesides. But, 
unfortunately, the great mass of parents have shown them- 
selves but sorry instructors and faithless guides to those who 
ought to be dearer to them than their own life. They are 
themselves, in general, too ignorant, to say no more, to do 
much. Hence, in our day, Infant Schools have been 
established in many places, to supply this radical defect. 
And report speaks well of them wherever they have been 
tried. How far it may be practicable or beneficial to intro- 
duce them into our country, except in large towns or manu- 
factories, I shall not stop to inquire. 

In order to furnish the community at large with the next 
(>es( aid to parental instruction, and as a substitute for it, 



12 . 

alter the first period of infancy, Common Schools prefei 
the strongest claims to our regard. We hear a great deal, 
at the present day, about common schools: and one would 
imagine that they had already become the favorites of the 
people. If so, then the cause of liberty and virtue has 
gained much in our land, and we need not despair of the 
republic. Upon this ground we can all meet and harmoni- 
ously co-operate. In this grand enterprise, all the advo- 
cates of colleges in our country will go hand in hand with 
the humblest of the people, not merely in declaiming about 
the necessity and importance of common schools, but in 
organizing and putting into practical operation the best sys- 
tem that can be devised. I have no fears that any of the 
alumni of Cumberland College will ever prove recreant or 
backward in this good work. 

Common Schools, then, are needed in Tennessee. How 
shall they be established? Let the people decide. What 
character and form shall they assume? Let every county 
be divided into such a number of school districts or depart- 
ments as will conveniently accommodate all the inhabitants. 
Erect comfortable and commodious school-houses. Attach 
to each school-house a lot of ten acres of land, for the pur- 
pose of healthful exercise, gardening, farming and the me- 
chanical arts. For the body requires training as well as 
the mind. Besides, as multitudes must live by manual la- 
bour, they ought betimes to acquire habits of industry, eco- 
nomy, temperance, hardihood, muscular strength, skill and 
dexterity. Employ teachers qualified to govern and in- 
struct children in the best possible manner. Pay them ac- 
cording to their merit. Pay any sum necessary to command 
the services of the best and most accomplished teachers. 
Parsimony in this particular is not only impolitic; it is mean, 
it is absurd, it is ruinous. Better have no teachers, than 
to have incompetent, immoral, lazy, passionate or indiscreet 
ones; however cheaply they may be procured. Their in- 
fluence will not be merely negative: it will be positive and 
most powerful. I have often looked with horror upon the 
kind of common schools and teachers to which thousands of 
children, during several of their best years, are cruelly and 
wantonly subjected in the older states. But it is or was 



13 

the fashion, in many places, to hire a blockhead or a vaga- 
bond, because he would teach a child for a dollar and twen- 
ty, five cents per quarter! Now, if there be any thing on 
earth for which a parent ought to feel disposed to pay lib- 
erally, it is for the faithful instruction of his children. Com- 
pared with this, every other interest vanishes like chaff 
before the wind — it is less than nothing. And yet, unless 
the world has suddenly grown much wiser, there is no ser- 
vice so grudgingly and so pitifully rewarded. The conse- 
quence is what might have been expected. Every man of 
cleverness and ambition will turn his back with scorn upon 
the country school. He will become a lawyer, a physician, 
a merchant, a mechanic, a farmer, or a farmer's overseer, 
in preference. Until school keeping be made an honorable 
and a lucrative profession, suitable teachers will never be 
forthcoming in this free country. 

But what is meant by a common school education? This 
question has never been answered; and it cannot be very 
satisfactorily answered. Some may think it enough that 
their children learn to read: others will insist on writing: 
many will be content with reading, writing and arithmetic. 
Others will add to the list, grammar, geography, history — 
perhaps, practical mathematics, physics, astronomy, me- 
chanics, rural economy — with several other branches of sci- 
ence and literature, as ethics, rhetoric, political economy, 
geology, chemistry, mineralogy, botany: — in short, where 
shall the limit be fixed? Who shall prescribe the bounda- 
ries beyond which a common school education shall never 
extend? It is evident, upon the slightest reflection, that 
the phrase common school education is a very indefinite 
one. How far beyond the alphabet it may be carried, has 
never been ascertained. Experiments are now making in 
Europe, and in several sections of our own country, which 
are calculated to give a totally different aspect to this whole 
concern. It has been discovered at length, what indeed 
was always sufficiently obvious, that a boy need not be kept 
at school eight or ten years to learn to read his primer, 
write his name, cipher to the rule of three, — and to hate 
books and learning for the rest of his life. It has been dis- 
covered that boys may, in three or four years, be taught o 



14 

hundred fold more, by skilful teachers, in a skilful way, than 
their fathers ever dreamt of learning at all. This is the 
grandest discovery of our age. It will do more to melio- 
rate the moral, physical and political condition of mankind 
generally, than all other means ever yet devised. 

The excellence and the extent of a common school ed- 
ucation, therefore, will ever depend on the qualifications of 
the teacher and the system which he pursues. No man 
can teach more than he knows himself. Every man can 
teach all that he does know. The more he knows, the 
more useful will he be. In the humblest school in the 
country, he will find some pupils to be benefited to the ut- 
most extent of his ability to instruct them. And upon the 
Monitorial or Lancasterian plan, he can teach any number. 

Let us then speedily have common or elementary schools 
so abundant and so wisely conducted, that, every son ( I say 
nothing now of the daughters) of the commonwealth maj 
be well and amply instructed. Let him acquire a taste fo] 
knowledge, and he will never cease to be a learner whik 
he lives. He will then be fitted for usefulness and honor. 
He will always have resources within himself. He will be 
conscious that he is an intellectual being; and that intel- 
lectual pleasures are among the purest, noblest and least 
expensive that can be enjoyed. 

But we must not stop here. Common schools are not 
enough. They will not satisfy the public necessities. — 
The better and more efficient the common schools be- 
come, the greater will be the demand for institutions of a 
higher order. Multitudes of aspiring youth will pant for 
more intellectual treasures. They will look out for other 
seats of learning where they may advance still further. 
Will you drive them to neighboring or distant states, and 
compel them to expend abroad the thousands of dollars 
which sound policy, to say no more, ought to induce you 
to keep in circulation at home? You must then establish, 
m every county, one or more first rate Classical Schools or 
Academies, where the languages and sciences may be more 
extensively and systematically taught. Let some twenty 
or fifty acres of land be attached to each of these semina- 
ries, for the same purposes that we have already assigned 



15 

them, to the common schools. Here again I must avoid de 
tails. Merely adding, however, that all this will not be 
sufficient. Learning is like wealth; — the more we get, the 
more we covet. No laws can prescribe the limit to mental, 
any more than to pecuniary acquisitions. 

We must have one or more Colleges to receive the nu- 
merous candidates for the highest literary honors and at- 
tainments. Our sister states have them: and if our youth 
cannot be accommodated at home, they will go where they 
can be better served. Now, a great College or University 
cannot be reared except at a great expense. It is not like 
an ordinary school or academy, which any enterprising in- 
dividual, with moderate resources, may establish any 
where. The aid of government — the wealth of the state — 
or else the combined efforts and contributions of many lib- 
eral individuals — will be necessary to build up a college. — 
Upon the University of Virginia, nearly half a million of 
dollars were expended before a pupil was admitted: and 
fifteen thousand dollars have been appropriated annually 
for ever to the support of Professors. And this was the work 
of the people's long tried champion and greatest favorite — 
the very oracle of orthodox republicanism — the immor- 
tal author of the Declaration of our National Independence. 

I do not say that Tennessee should forthwith vote half 
a million of dollars, or any other sum, to a college. But she 
ought to make ample provision for the intellectual wants of 
her citizens. And she is able to do this, cost what it may. 
Were a judicious system of common schools and academies 
put into operation immediately: within half a dozen years, 
there would be five hundred youths in West Tennessee 
alone, eager to avail themselves of the benefits of a college. 
And should there be no college in West Tennessee, adapt- 
ed to their wants and wishes, they . will cross the Moun- 
tains or the Ocean in search of knowledge, and carry along 
with them from two to five hundred thousand dollars a year, 
as a tribute to the superior wisdom and intelligence of dis- 
tant or foreign states. Thus, in a single year, might be 
withdrawn from the state more money than would suffice, 
to create a Cambridge at our very doors. This is a consid- 
eration which every political economist ought to appreciate, 



16 

and which the legal guardians of the people's welfare and 
prosperity ought gravely to ponder. It is assuredly no light 
evil to any community, when capital or income shall seek 
a foreign market without producing an equivalent return. 
Every dollar thus forced away is a dollar lost to the state. 

I am well aware of the popular prejudices and apprehen- 
sions which are cherished in regard to colleges and college 
graduates. I know that they are frequently represented 
as the enemies of general improvement — as having no sym- 
pathy, or community of feeling or interest with the great 
mass of the people. That they constitute a class or party 
by themselves, and that they ought to be viewed with jeal- 
ousy and suspicion by all the vigilant patriotic guardians of 
our liberties. If there has ever been any plausible pretext 
for such an opinion, it certainly exists not in our country. 
I have never yet heard of one liberally educated American 
who was not a decided friend to every well devised plan 
and measure calculated to diffuse the blessings of know- 
ledge universally. He is from experience, from convic- 
tion, from principle, from patriotism, from philanthropy, the 
firm, persevering and zealous advocate and promoter of ed- 
ucation among the people. He ardently desires that every 
son and daughter of the Republic may be well educated. 
And that his deeds have nobly corresponded with his pro- 
fessions, let facts speak for themselves. This is logic not 
easily to be encountered. 

And if there be any friends of popular instruction, of lib- 
erty and the rights of man, in the old world, they are to 
be found exclusively among the best educated. The de- 
molition of despotism in France, and the establishment of a 
free representative government in its stead, were first 
thought of, canvassed and attempted by the most enlightened 
men in the kingdom: and long before the ignorant millions 
of that ill-fated country had ever heard the name of liber- 
ty. And it was precisely because the millions could not 
comprehend its import, much less appreciate its value, that, 
when once excited, they became ungovernable, furious, 
brutal, ferocious: and the consequences need no recital or 
comment. Had the people, however, been previously in- 
structed in the first elements o£ letters and politics; had 



17 

they learned how to reflect, to reason and to judge, a very 
different result would have been witnessed. Similar at- 
tempts have been made, by a few enlightened patriots in 
other parts of Europe, to meliorate the political condition 
of the people, which, from a similar cause, have proved 
equally abortive. 

From the Colleges and Universities of Europe have 
emanated those rays of light which have caused despots to 
tremble on their thrones. And, at this day, those great 
nurseries of truth and liberty are more dreaded by the em- 
perors, kings and princes of Russia, Austria, Prussia and 
Germany, than any and all other enemies put together. — 
Hence the rigid system of police and jealous espionage ex- 
ercised towards them. Strange that republicans should 
represent colleges as hostile to liberty, when tyrants per- 
secute them because they are friendly to liberty. Youth 
cannot long be familiar with the history and institutions of 
Greece and Rome, without imbibing something of that en- 
thusiasm for liberty which inspired a Demosthenes, an 
Epaminondas, a Phocion, a Cicero, a Brutus and a Cato. By 
the way, the friends of liberty ought to be the last men on 
earth to decry classical learning. 

It was from the newly instituted colleges of Scio and 
Bucharest, that, the first champions of liberty and indepen- 
dence issued, to animate their fellow bondmen of Modern 
Greece to break the chains of Mohammedan oppressors. 
And they have made every effort to establish schools, 
throughout their degraded country, to teach lessons of li- 
berty to the people. God grant them success in their glori- 
ous struggle; and a generous, high-minded, patriotic, vir- 
tuous, enlightened Washington, to direct their energies in 
the cabinet and in the field! 

Now there can be no better or stronger evidence in fa- 
vour of the general beneficial tendency of learning, however 
obtained, than the fact, that, whenever, in ancient or modern 
times, endeavours have been made to procure liberty to a 
people, and wherever it has been acquired, those endea- 
vours were made, and that acquisition secured, by men of 
superior knowledge. Such is the language of history from 
Moses to Bolivar. And among the most enlightened phi- 



18 

lanthropists on the continent of Europe at this moment, the 
grand cause of their discouragement and despair in regard to 
liberty, is, that the people are too ignorant to be intrusted 
with liberty; and hence they feel constrained to remain in- 
active. They fain would give instruction to the people, in 
order to prepare and qualify them for free and liberal insti- 
tutions, would their masters permit them. 

When our fathers commenced their almost hopeless con- 
troversy with the mother country; who were the kindred 
spirits attracted to our shores and to our aid by the native 
charms and legitimate claims of liberty? Not the degraded 
serf or feudal slave — not the illiterate farmer or mechanic — 
but such men as might have adorned the proudest court in 
Christendom — men of whom their own country was un- 
worthy — men who understood the full import of the glori- 
ous cause to which they were ready to sacrifice titles, and 
honours, and fortune and life: — they were Pulaski, Steuben, 
De Kalb, Kosciusko, La Fayette. 

And who, allow me to ask my republican auditors, or, if 
they please, to remind them of what, perchance, they may 
have forgotten — who were the prompters, the mainsprings, 
the leaders of our memorable revolution? The answer to 
the question is upon every schoolboy's tongue. He will 
recount a catalogue of patriots, who, for profound know- 
ledge and practical wisdom, were never surpassed in any 
age or country. Such were the friends of our own liber- 
ties, at a time too, when they were not only stigmatized as 
rebels, but were in hourly danger of being hanged as rebels. 
They were the master-spirits who aroused the people to 
resistance. They were honest men, and they united in 
promoting the permanent welfare of their country. Hap- 
pily, the people, having been generally educated at com- 
mon schools, were sufficiently informed to comprehend 
their rights, when those rights were ably explained to them, 
and wise enough to be guided by their superiors in wisdom. 
But had the intelligent, the learned colonists of those days 
combined with the English aristocracy in maintaining the 
ancient government in all its plans of oppression, the peo- 
ple would never have thought of a revolution. Had they 
been enlisted on the side of the British ministry, we had 



19 

fcMs day been the loyal subjects of his majesty, George the 
Fourth. 

They too, be it remembered, zealously espoused the 
cause of education; well assured that the goodly fabric of 
liberty, which they had succeeded in rearing, would speed- 
ily tumble into ruins, or become the citadel of some future 
Caesar or Catiline, unless the rising and each successive 
generation should be taught to maintain their rights by fully 
comprehending them. Hence, whenever they had oppor- 
tunity, in the legislative councils of the States or of the Na- 
tion, they endeavored to secure a legal provision for 
schools and colleges, either by the appropriation of public 
lands, or by gradually accumulating an adequate pecuniary 
fund for the purpose. To the general truth of this repre- 
sentation, I am not acquainted with a single exception 
among our revolutionary heroes and statesmen. All the 
Presidents of the United States have uniformly agreed in 
sentiment on this subject. And who, of the long list of 
worthies whom the people have delighted to honour as pa- 
triots, has ever ventured to advocate a contrary doctrine ? 

Franklin laboured, during his whole life, in the cause 
of schools, from the humblest to the highest, and finally suc- 
ceeded in founding the University of Pennsylvania: al- 
though his example has been often cited to prove the in- 
utility of all such institutions. He had himself conquered 
difficulties in the acquisition of science, which not one of a 
million would ever think of encountering. And he possess- 
ed too much good sense, and too much benevolence to wish 
others to be left to the mere chance of creating for them- 
selves a path to eminence, when a great public highway 
might be so easily constructed for their convenience. He 
knew that an extraordinary exception to a general rule or 
law ought never to be urged against the rule itself. 

Washington devoted much of his time and all the weight 
of his influence to the same object. And he, at last, lib- 
erally endowed a college in his native State, which still 
bears his name. 

Jefferson, besides promoting the same great cause during 
the long period of his public career, consecrated the last se- 
venteen years of his valuable life to the establishment of a 



20 

University, upon the most permanent basis and of the 
most enlarged dimensions. And centuries hence, probably, 
the name of Jefferson will be more revered and distinguish- 
ed as the father of the University of Virginia, than as a phi- 
losopher or statesman. 

No man, it is presumed, will, at the present day, accuse 
a Franklin, a Washington, or a Jefferson of any lack of pa- 
triotism or republicanism. And no man need be ashamed 
to follow their example. May their spirit rest upon some 
favoured son of Tennessee; and may she have the honour 
of perpetuating upon the page of history, a name worthy, 
in all respects, to be associated with our immortal Franklin, 
Washington and Jefferson! This honour, I doubt not, she 
will have; and that our Academic Halls will hail him as a 
patron and benefactor, while virtue and science and liberty 
shall exist in our land. 

As I am dealing altogether with facts, and not with theo- 
ries; and as I do not wish to go a hair's breadth beyond 
the simple truth, I take leave distinctly to announce to you, 
that, I do not affirm that all men of learning have, every 
where and under all circumstances, been the friends of lib- 
erty and human happiness. Far from it. The position 
which I maintain is simply this; — that liberty and the best 
interests of humanity, have ever been ably and successfully 
advocated and promoted only by men well informed; and by 
the best informed too of the age and country in which they 
flourished. And, that, among ourselves, the most enlight- 
ened citizens have ever approved themselves the most 
effectual guardians of the people's rights. I admit also, 
that so far as this argument is concerned, it matters not 
where or how they acquire the requisite knowledge — 
whether in common schools or high schools — in colleges or 
universities — at home or abroad — by their own unassisted 
efforts and enterprise, or from public institutions established 
by the government or by individual munificence. But un- 
til a better mode of arriving at the object can be devised, 
we shall continue to regard schools and colleges as indis- 
pensable. So long as the republic shall need learned men, 
we shall expect schools and colleges to furnish them. — 
They have already done the state some service: and they 
are destined, we trust, to do it a great deal more. 



21 

I am no blind admirer of colleges and universities. There 
exists not one, in Europe or America, which might not be 
greatly improved. The same may be said of common 
schools, and of all human institutions. Shall we, therefore, 
put an end to every system of education, because none has 
hitherto been faultless? Will those who denounce colleges, 
pretend that common schools are less obnoxious to censure; 
or that they are as good as they need to be? Reformation 
— improvement — is the order of the age — and it must be 
obeyed. The work must be commenced and continued si- 
multaneously in all our seminaries, great and small. The 
cause is one and indivisible. Colleges exert an important 
influence on the character of common schools: and these 
again constitute the foundation of colleges. Unless com- 
mon schools be good, our colleges will not be good. The 
intermediate schools or academies will not remedy the de- 
fects of the one or the other. It is all important to begin 
well. If boys enter college with idle and vicious habits, 
they will probably continue idle and vicious. If they have 
been well trained at home and at school, they will be or- 
derly, virtuous and diligent in college. The graduates of 
our colleges generally will be found to have received their 
bias to virtue or vice, under the parental roof, and from 
their earliest instructers and associates. If parents neglect 
their sons, or leave them to ignorant or profligate preceptors 
or companions, during childhood and early youth, they need 
not expect that the discipline of any college on earth will op- 
erate upon them any miraculous regenerating influence. — 
Such boys are ruined before they enter college: although 
parents are generally charitable enough to blame the col- 
lege for their own inexcusable folly and cruel indulgence, 
when their hopeless sons disappoint their unreasonable ex- 
pectations. Colleges have enough to answer for: let them 
not be charged with sins of which they are innocent. Nor 
let them be required to accomplish impossibilities. Supply 
them with pupils, who have been thoroughly disciplined at 
home and at school — of a suitable age to act with reason- 
able discretion, and who are really desirous to acquire 
knowledge — and the public will hear very little of the fol- 
lies and dissipation of a college life. No real friend of col- 



leges, therefore, can ever be hostile or indifferent to good 
common schools. 

It were well for the community, if the professed advo- 
cates of common schools were equally well disposed to- 
wards colleges. Their grand objection to them, besides 
those already hinted at, is briefly this: — That colleges are 
designed exclusively for the rich — that the poor cannot be 
benefited by them — and, therefore, that the poor ought not 
to be taxed for their support, or that the people's purse 
ought not to be burdened on their account. 

This specious and very sage objection contains several 
sophisms and several falsehoods. 

In the first place: Colleges, in our country, are not, never 
were, and never can be designed exclusively for the rich. 
For, in fact, many poor youths have been educated in every 
college of the Union during every year of their existence. 
But then, such poor youths must usually belong to the vi- 
cinity, or at least to the state, in which the college is situat- 
ed. Neither Connecticut nor New- Jersey would ever think 
of educating at their colleges a poor youth of Tennessee: 
but many hundreds of poor, very poor young men of their 
own states have been thus educated. Without a college at 
home, every poor youth is necessarily cut off from all hope 
or chance of any such privilege. 

Again, between the rich and the poor, there is in the 
community another class of citizens vastly larger than both 
of them put together — the middling class, and the best class 
— all of whom might educate one or more sons at college, at 
an expense of from fifty to a hundred and fifty dollars per 
year, who could never send their sons abroad at an expense 
of from five hundred to a thousand dollars a year. Will the 
state do nothing for this large and respectable body of her 
citizens? The merest trifle contributed by each would 
place advantages within the reach of the whole, which no 
individual could otherwise possibly command. 

But, in the second place, grant that colleges are designed 
exclusively for the rich. What does a wise policy dictate 
as the proper course to be pursued? The question is not, 
whether the rich shall, or shall not educate their sons at a 
college; but whether they may do it at home, or must do 



23 

it abroad? For with money, they can do what they please. 
They can send their sons to Philadelphia or Paris, to Ox- 
ford or Edinburgh. Would it not be good policy then to 
require these rich men to build up a college, suited to their 
own purposes, and at their own expense; and thereby con- 
strain or induce them to employ their funds, and to disburse 
their ample revenues within the state, to the unspeakable 
benefit of all classes of citizens, and especially of the mid- 
dling and poorest, by encouraging every species of indus- 
try and enhancing the value of every description of pro- 
perty, to the full amount of the money thus prevented from 
going into the hands of foreigners? Were this matter rightly 
understood by the people, they woald presently perceive, 
that, the main scope of the pretext so artfully employed to 
mislead them, was, after all, at bottom, nothing more than 
to spare the purses of the rich, to the manifest detriment of 
the whole community — of the rich as well as the poor — for 
the rich deceive themselves if they imagine that they will 
be the gainers in any way by such a course. It will cost a 
rich man ten times as much to educate one son at a distant 
seminary as he would be required to contribute, during his 
whole life, for the erection of a college, according to any 
equitable plan of assessment or taxation which might be 
adopted for the purpose. 

But, in the third place, — why all this clamour and affec- 
tation of zeal in behalf of the poor? Do men legislate only 
for the poor? Does the government exist solely for the 
poor? Are the poor, and they only, elected to office? Is 
not some pecuniary or landed qualification indispensable to 
any man's eligibility to office? Is the public money — ay, 
the people's money — paid out in salaries to the poor — to 
poor governors, poor judges, poor senators? Are banking., 
insurance, manufacturing, turnpike, bridge, or canal compa- 
nies incorporated from among the poor, and chiefly for the 
benefit of the poor? One might imagine from the noise 
made on the subject, that the poor were all in all to the 
state; that they were the precious objects of the govern- 
ment's special care and protection: Since their self-consti- 
tuted patrons virtually maintain, that, if they cannot all go 
to college, there shall be no college. Why not decree, that 



24 

if the poor man cannot ride in a coach, there shall be no 
coaches; or that the rich shall not use them? 

Now the plain simple truth is, that the poor are nevci 
taxed in our country for any purpose whatever. All taxes 
are levied on property. Were twenty colleges to be com- 
menced to-morrow, the poor would not be burdened a far- 
thing. They would, on the contrary, be immediately bene- 
fited by the demand thus created for their labour, and by 
the liberal wages which would be paid them. 

But, in the fourth place, strictly speaking, there are no 
poor in our country. Among the white population there is 
no degraded caste. We have no class of poor, like the poor 
of Europe. We impose on ourselves by the imported terms 
and phraseology of transatlantic society. And hence we 
talk as currently about the poor, as would an English lord 
or German baron. Forgetting that the poorest man in the 
republic may become rich. The richest of our citizens 
have been poor. The rich and the poor are frequently re- 
lated to each other. The rich man may have a poor father 
or brother. And the poorest individual may be nearly al- 
lied to the most distinguished families in the land. Our 
state of society is constantly fluctuating. Eich families dai- 
ly decline: poor ones daily advance. Wealth and poverty 
are mere accidents. They are not hereditary in particular 
lines, or perpetuated in particular families. It is absurd 
therefore to declaim or to speculate about the poor as if 
they were an oppressed, miserable, helpless class, like the 
Russian or Polish peasantry. We have all been poor. We 
may be poor again. When poor, we were obliged to deny 
ourselves many comforts, luxuries and privileges which we 
now enjoy; and it was mainly by this self-denial that we 
were enabled to improve our condition. And such must 
ever be the case. If the poor wish to rise above their pre- 
sent condition, they can do so, every where in our country, 
by industry, prudence and economy: and they will con- 
tinue, to do so, as long as they shall be left to their own free 
energies. I trust the time is far distant, when our govern- 
ment shall think it worth while to perpetuate pauperism 
amongst us by legal encouragement — by premiums in the 
shape of poor rates. 



»>r* 



The only distinction which exists among our citizens, 
worthy of notice, is between the educated and the unedu- 
cated. The former engross all the wealth, offices, and in- 
fluence in the nation; while the latter remain the victims 
of want, of crime, of infamy, and of punishment. I here 
use the term educated in a very wide and comprehensive 
sense. That individual who has learned how to labour at 
any honest occupation, and who knows how to manage his 
earnings skilfully, is educated, and well educated, compared 
with those who have been brought up to no business; or who 
are destitute of sobriety, prudence and economy. He may 
become rich and honourable; while they are necessarily 
doomed to poverty and wretchedness. Between these two 
descriptions of persons there is an impassable gulf. They 
are further removed from each other than the lord and his 
vassal: and the longer they live the wider will be the dis- 
tance between them. Whoever has grown up in total 
ignorance of the means of acquiring an honest livelihood, 
and with vicious habits, may be regarded, in general, as 
helpless and hopeless. Gross ignorance, at least of every 
thing good and useful, is the cause of all the degradation in 
our country. Now although there may be no' effectual 
remedy for the evil which actually exists, yet there is a pre- 
ventive — its further progress may be checked — its recur- 
rence may be prevented. This preventive remedy is in- 
struction, moral, intellectual, physical, religious. It is not 
only the cheapest — it is the only remedy. If inveterate 
habits cannot be changed; take care that the children form 
better habits, and imbibe better principles than their fathers. 

Our country has expended, and continues to expend,, on 
courts of justice and criminal prosecutions — on prisons and 
penitentiaries — for the punishment and safe keeping of a 
few veteran and incorrigible villains, vastly more money 
than would be required to give a suitable education to all 
the absolutely indigent youth in the nation. If government, 
therefore, instead of wasting millions in the hopeless endea- 
vour to reform the hardened offender, would cause such 
children as would otherwise be neglected, to be properly 
disciplined and brought up, there would soon be little ne- 
cessity for prisons or penitentiaries. Here is the right end 



m 

to begin at — the proper starting point — the first step in the 
work of general reformation, without which every other 
will be taken in vain. Happily, wherever the experiment 
has been made, it has fully succeeded. Among the thou- 
sands of poor children recently trained in the free schools 
of the city of New- York, not one has been sentenced to 
bridewell. Thus far then, at least, the rich might be fairly 
taxed for the benefit of the poor. This would not only be 
real benevolence — it would be the wisest policy — the least 
expensive course that could be adopted. And if the state 
should choose to do more; let a certain proportion of the 
most promising boys in the common schools be annually ad- 
vanced to the academy; and the best of these again to the 
college, at the public expense. 

It is worse than idle to object to colleges because they 
do not educate the poor, and yet to refuse them the means 
of doing it. If the state please, she can organize and en- 
dow a college, so that the poor and the rich may enjoy its 
privileges gratis. Or she may make such provision only 
for the poor, and compel the rich to pay. She has it in her 
power to confer on the poor, in this respect, whatever fa- 
vours she chooses. If any honest friend of the poor and the 
ignorant can devise a more liberal or judicious system for 
their elevation in society, it shall receive my hearty appro- 
bation and support. 

Let it not be inferred from any thing just said, that I am 
an enemy to the penitentiary system. It is, when judi- 
ciously administered, a good and necessary system, in the 
existing state of our society. But it may, and I doubt not, 
will be, in a great measure, superseded by the proper train- 
ing of our youth, who would otherwise become its pitiable 
subjects. 

Having thus, at greater length than I intended, disposed 
of some of the popular objections to colleges — objections 
which I have frequently heard advanced in Tennessee — I 
might proceed to show what a college ought to be. But as 
I have, on a former occasion, expressed my views pretty 
fully on this subject, I shall not now repeat them. 

I must be permitted, however, to say a word in behalf of 
Cumberland College; especially to my young friends, who 



27 

have just been adorned with her laurel, and who will be 
regarded as her representatives before the public, and whom 
she will regard as her natural and most warmly devoted 
friends and advocates. 

You have been told, or you have witnessed the various 
fortune of this institution — its many and well sustained 
struggles for existence — its decline and failure after a few 
bright days of sunshine and prosperity — its recent resusci- 
tation under circumstances which would have discouraged 
and appalled men of ordinary capacity and enterprise — its 
conduct, character and progress during the period of nearly 
two years since its re-organization; and you cannot be in- 
sensible to the numerous difficulties and obstacles, which it 
must still encounter, before it can attain that pre-eminent 
rank to which she aspires. For she will not be content 
with humble mediocrity, nor with a mere equality with her 
sister institutions. She aims at vastly greater eminence 
and usefulness than has yet been reached by any of them.. 
This aim will be pronounced visionary by those who do not 
know what constitutes the real excellence of a college, and 
by those who are ever disposed to predict a failure where 
they do not wish success. 

Men frequently, too, labour under an unfortunate preju- 
dice on this subject. They presume that colleges must be 
growing better as they grow older; and distance of situation 
greatly increases their reverence. Hence, a venerable 
monastic establishment, a hundred years old, and a thousand 
miles off, is conceived to possess advantages which young 
Tennessee cannot hope for in a century. Now I venture 
to assert, that, our infant university might be made, in five 
years, superior to any and to all the colleges in our country 
— -if the people will but decree it. Let us not be imposed 
on by mere names. Buildings, books, apparatus, teachers, 
constitute the principal expensive ingredients of a univer- 
sity: and money can command them all, in as great abun- 
dance and perfection here as in Europe or old America 
We have the full benefit of all past experience to begin 
with. Whatever is excellent in existing institutions, wc 
may adopt: whatever is superfluous, or antiquated, or faulty, 
wo may reject ]' is much easier to create a good institu- 



28 

tion than to mend a bad one. Ancient usage naturally be- 
comes prescriptive, and ordinarily prevents innovation or 
improvement. 

Upon the virgin soil of Tennessee, then, may be reared 
a seminary, which shall eclipse, in grandeur of design and 
felicity of execution, and in the wisdom of its arrangements 
and combinations, all other institutions — if her sons will 
but prove true to themselves and faithful to future genera- 
tions. A more eligible or healthful site for such an esta- 
blishment cannot be found in the Western country. Here 
is the place, and now is the time for generous enterprise. 
Here let us erect a university, so decidedly and confessedly 
superior in every department, that a rival or competitor 
need not be feared. Let us make ample provision for 
every species of instruction — scientific, literary, profes- 
sional — which our country demands. Let education be 
extended to the physical and moral, as well as to the mental 
faculties. Let agriculture, horticulture, civil and military 
engineering, gymnastics, the liberal and the mechanical 
arts — whatever may tend to impart vigour, dignity, grace, 
activity, health, to the body — whatever may tend to purify 
the heart, improve the morals and manners, discipline the 
intellect, and to furnish it with copious stores of useful 
elementary knowledge, — obtain their appropriate place and 
rank, and receive merited attention in our seminary; so 
that parents may, with confidence, commit their sons to our 
care. Assured that they will be in safe and skilful hands — 
under a government, equitable, paternal, mild, firm, vigilant 
and faithful — where their every interest will be consulted, 
their every faculty be duly cultivated, and where every 
effort will be made to render them intelligent, virtuous, 
accomplished citizens. Does any man doubt that such an 
institution will ever want patronage? Make it the best in 
the country; and will it not command the patronage of the 
country? Such an establishment as we contemplate, the 
public mind is already prepared for, and has begun to call 
for. This call is imperative — it will be heard — it will be 
answered. We must meet it or others will. 

Our college is already as good and respectable as most 
others; certainly inferior to none in the West. It has re- 



29 

ceived the most flattering encouragement. No college, in 
any part of our country, has, with the same means, effected 
as much, or numbered as many students, in so short a pe- 
riod. I may add, too, without exaggeration or compliment, 
that, the orderly, moral, gentlemanly deportment of our 
students, during the past session especially, and of most of 
them from the beginning, would have done credit to any 
seminary. And that they have made extraordinary pro- 
ficiency in the languages and sciences, taught by our labo- 
rious and accomplished professors, has been fully acknow- 
ledged by all who have attended their public examinations 
or ordinary recitations. The friends of the college, there- 
fore, have no ground for despondency on the one hand; 
and we trust thai they will not be so far satisfied with its 
actual condition on the other, as to relax their zealous 
efforts for its future improvement. 

In this great work, there is no resting place — no point to 
stop at. With the increase of population, with the march 
of mind and the progress of universal improvement, we 
must keep pace. We must daily advance. Perfection 
should be our motto and our aim, however much we may 
ultimately fail of attaining it. Every successful step should 
prompt to another and a greater. When we have gained 
one eminence, we shall be able to descry a still higher and 
a mere inviting; which, when reached, must serve only to 
enlarge our horizon, and extend our vision, and brighten 
our hopes, and animate our efforts, and cheer us in our la- 
bours, for the welfare of mankind. 

The Trustees of Cumberland College have purchased 
one hundred and twenty acres of land to meet the various 
purposes of their contemplated university. It is proposed 
immediately to commence the erection of a series of build- 
ings for the accommodation of students, instructers and 
stewards; consisting of five additional colleges, each suffi- 
ciently commodious for a hundred students and three assis- 
tant professors or tutors, and of seven houses for as many 
principal or head professors. We shall then have six col- 
leges, and twenty-five instructers, and accommodations for 
six hundred pupils. To each college will be attached a 
refectory or boarding house, with eight or ten acres of land 



30 

for gardening and exercise. The colleges will be erected 
at such distances from each other as to prevent the usual 
evils resulting from the congregation of large numbers of 
youth at the same place. Professors will occupy houses on 
the intervening lots: and there will be at least three officers 
resident within the walls of each college. We shall thus 
have six distinct and separate families, so far as regards 
domestic economy, internal police, and social order; while 
one Senatus Academicus will superintend and control the 
whole. 

Gardens and mechanics' shops will be interspersed among 
the various edifices, in such manner as to be easily accessi- 
ble to all the youth for improvement and recreation. — 
Whenever the present ground shall be thus occupied, it 
will be necessary to procure fifty or a hundred acres more, 
for a model or experimental farm; that agriculture, the 
noblest of sciences and the most important of the useful arts, 
may be thoroughly studied and practised. At a future 
period, or as soon as the means can be obtained, other suit- 
able edifices, both useful and ornamental, may be erected. 
The plan admits of indefinite extension; and in proportion 
to its enlargement, its advantages will be increased, while 
the expense of its maintenance will be diminished. 

In order to execute our present design, only about 
$ 200,000 will be required. This sum might be furnished 
by the State at once; or in two, four, eight or ten years. 
Or it may be obtained partly hy donations, and partly by 
loan, Any individual, for instance, bestowing $ 20,000 
may give his name to a college or to a professorship: or 
any number of individuals, subscribing that sum, may give 
any name they please to a college or professorship. Sup- 
pose Davidson county, or even Nashville were disposed 
to erect a monument to the memory of her most honoured 
citizen; what could she do more grateful to him, more 
worthy of herself, more beneficial to the republic, than to 
contribute the sum of $ 20,000 to build an edifice, on yonder 
hill, to be known among all future generations as Jackson 
College, founded and endowed by the citizens of Davidson 

county or of Nashville, in the year what year shall 

he designated? If the appeal were made to her generosity, 



31 

her public spirit, her gratitude, her just pride and magna- 
nimity, I cannot deem so lightly of her present citizens as to 
anticipate a refusal, which would prove her alike unworthy 
of a great University and of the Hero of New Orleans. 

Let us calculate — we have, within the limits of our city 
corporation alone, not less than four thousand free white 
inhabitants. Were each to give five dollars, or were two 
thousand to give each ten dollars, or were one thousand to 
give twenty dollars apiece, the object would be accomplished 
without the aid of the county at large: and who could feel 
the burthen? Thus, then, one college, at least, is provided 
for;. Some others might possibly be erected by similar 
means, and in honor of other meritorious individuals. 

The little town of Amherst, in Massachusetts, which does 
not contain one half of the population, nor one twentieth 
part of the wealth of Nashville, raised, by private subscrip- 
tion in 1821, the sum of fifty thousand dollars to commence 
a college within its limits.* And several other towns in our 
country have been equally munificent. 

Let no man imagine, that, in giving money to a college, 
he is doling out alms to an importunate or worthless beggar. 
He does honour to himself by the aet; and the institution 
honours him by accepting his bounty; and is able to confer 
on him and his family a greater and more durable honour 
than mere selfish wealth can ever procure. The otherwise 
obscure names of Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Bowdoin, 
Williams, Brown, Bartlett, Phillips, Dickinson, Rutgers, 
will be immortalized by the seminaries to which they have 
been benefactors, and which will bear their names for ever. 
If honour, real honour, lasting honour, be worth seeking; 
here is the road to it. 

If, however, nothing can be obtained from our legislature, 
or from our good city or county, or from individuals, we 
may borrow the whole sum of two hundred thousand dol- 
lars, at an interest not exceeding six per cent — creating a 
transferable six per cent stock — and, in twenty years, we 
could easily pay off both principal and interest, at the pre- 

*Another sum of $50,000 was added to the funds of Amherst College by 
the private subscription of its friends, during the last year (1832.) And the 
sum of $100,000 was raised for the benefit of Yale College by her alumni 
during the same year. 



32 

sent rate of charges for tuition and room-rent. It would be 
merely necessary, in order to procure the loan, that the 
state should guaranty the payment, or that responsible in- 
dividuals should underwrite for us. And we can pledge 
ample means either to the state or to individuals, to secure 
the one or the other, from all hazard of eventual loss; as I 
am prepared to demonstrate, at the proper time to all com- 
petent judges. Now it would be vastly preferable that the 
money should be gratuitously furnished, because ( to specify 
no other advantages) the expenses of an education at our 
university might be diminished one half immediately; and 
thus would the portals of science be opened wide to the 
great majority of our people. 

But the funds must and will be forthcoming from some 
quarter. We are not to be deterred or frightened from our 
purpose by any obstacles, real or imaginary. We have 
very deliberately counted the cost: and onward is engraven 
upon our banners and upon our hearts. 

Who, let me ask — I put the question to this assembly — to 
the good people of Tennessee — who will oppose our pro- 
jected institution, designed, as it is, exclusively for the be- 
nefit of this people? I will tell you. It will be opposed by 
the faint-hearted, the cowardly, the ignorant, the c6vetous; 
and by all the enemies of light, truth, virtue and human 
happiness. It will be opposed by that description of selfish, 
arrogant, self-sufficient, would he lords and Solomons, who 
exist in every petty village, and who always oppose what- 
ever does not originate from themselves, or which is not sub- 
mitted to their own wise management and control. It will 
be opposed by those who can, by any artifice or misrepresen- 
tation, convert the scheme into a political hobby to ride into 
office. It will be opposed by those who despair of getting 
out of it a job — a bargain — a money-making speculation — 
some paltry private gain or advantage. But it will never 
be opposed by one honest man, by one honourable man, by 
one enlightened man, by one patriotic man, by one benevo- 
lent man, by one great or good man. 

Here then, before the venerable fathers, who first planted 
the standard of civilization and Christianity in this recent 
wilderness, shall have left the scene of their early toils and 



33 

sufferings for ever, let the banks of (he Cumberland be 
adorned with the majestic temples of science and with the 
academic groves, which may proudly vie with those which 
have conferred immortality on the Cam and the Isis. 

AiaiA Mater confidently appeals to her own ingenuous 
alumni; and claims of them chivalrous fealty, and honoura- 
ble service, and lasting attachment, and generous support. 
She will not appeal to them in vain. And may she, as I 
doubt not she will, a thousand generations after all her ene- 
mies shall be forgotten, be the ornament, the pride, and the 
glory of Tennessee! 

Having thus earnestly pressed upon your notice the great 
cause of education, and the cause of our own infant univer- 
sity in particular, as worthy of peculiar regard and benefi- 
cence; I may briefly add, in this connexion, that every 
scheme and enterprise, calculated, in any degree, to pro- 
mote human happiness, will also claim your countenance 
and support. You must be the leaders — where others bet- 
ter qualified do not offer — in every good work. I do not 
recommend to you merely those magnificent and imposing 
projects for the melioration of the condition of mankind, 
which are sufficiently popular to command general respect; 
but, besides these, I recommend to you those humbler, less 
dazzling, less conspicuous, and, frequently, more disinterest- 
ed modes of doing good, which occur every day, in every 
village, and in almost every family. Now, to be able to do 
good, in any of the modes suggested or contemplated, re- 
member, that, industry in acquiring knowledge or wealth 
will not alone suffice. Nor will it be sufficient to abstain 
from degrading vice — from intemperance and gambling — 
from every species of youthful irregularity and ruinous dis- 
sipation. You must study prudence and economy in the 
management of both time and money. A man, extravagant 
in his ordinary expenses, fond of show and ostentation, ea- 
ger to be at the head of the fashionable world or in the 
pursuit of fashionable pleasures and follies, is not likely to 
be generous. He will never become a Howard or a Frank- 
lin. The man of plain and simple habits, who avoids all 
needless display and luxury, who is content with what is 



34 

useful and comfortable, is the man who has the most to be- 
stow on objects of charity, benevolence and public utility. 

Go then, Young Gentlemen, and prosecute with perse- 
vering ardour, the new course of study and discipline, which 
is to qualify you to enter, in due time, upon the great the- 
atre of active, useful, honourable life. Be not in haste to 
engage in those various liberal professions, to which most 
or all of you, perhaps, intend hereafter to devote your fa- 
culties. Wait, with patience, the full development of your 
mental powers; and continue long to collect, with untiring 
assiduity, from every source, the treasures of knowledge 
which are necessary to fit you for eminence in any profes- 
sion; and for the noblest career of usefulness to your coun- 
try, and for the most exalted stations within her gift. De- 
spise not — neglect not any department of human learning, 
whenever and wherever it can be consistently cultivated. 
No man ever denounces, as useless or superfluous, any sci- 
ence or language with which he is himself acquainted. 
The ignorant only, condemn: and they condemn what they 
do not understand, and because they do not understand it. 
Whenever, therefore, you hear a man declaiming against 
any literary or scientific pursuit, you may rest assured that 
he knows nothing of the matter: and you will need no bet- 
ter evidence of his total incompetency to sit in judgment 
upon the case. Of all the learned men of whatever age, 
country or profession, who have benefited our world by 
their labours — who have been most distinguished and most 
successful? Precisely those who have judiciously put un- 
der contribution, to the greatest extent, every corner and 
recess of the grand temple of science, which it was possible 
for them to explore. There is such an intimate connexion 
between the sciences, such a perfect harmony of parts in 
the great whole of human knowledge, that all may frequent- 
ly, like the rays of the sun, be brought to bear intensely on 
a single point; or, at pleasure, be spread over an immense 
surface, diffusing light and heat and joy to the utmost verge 
of civilized society. 

Study, then, to improve all your time in the most profit- 
able manner. Let your amusements be rational, virtuous, 
seasonable, manly, and invigorating to body and mind. Let 



35 

order, and method, and system be adopted and rigorously 
maintained. Study hard while you profess to study. Relax 
at suitable intervals, only to return with redoubled ardor 
to your books. Thus, health, serenity of mind, elasticity 
of spirits, present enjoyment, future usefulness and honour 
will all be promoted and secured. 

Be not, however, the blind idolaters of genius or of sci- 
ence. Both may exist where not one lovely or commend- 
able trait of character can be found. The loftiest intellect, 
without virtue, is but archangel ruined. In God only, do 
we behold the perfection of understanding, of wisdom, of 
knowledge, of holiness. And he is that perfect standard 
which we are commanded to aim at. Religion, which re- 
quires us to be like God, constitutes the whole of moral ex- 
cellence. And in proportion as religion influences the heart 
and life, will be the moral worth of any individual. There 
can be no principle of integrity, of truth, of kindness, of 
justice, independently of religion. No human laws, usages, 
institutions or opinions can, of themselves, ever render any 
man perfectly honest in all his dealings and transactions 
with his fellow-men. He has it continually in his power, 
with a fair reputation too, to mislead, deceive, defraud— 
and, in a thousand ways, to practise imposition. And he is 
continually tempted to do this, in a country where influence, 
office, money are the objects of universal desire and ambi- 
tion, and where success is regarded as the criterion of merit 
and talent. He may not be a thief or a robber in the eye 
of the law, or according to the ordinary judgment of men; 
and yet he may be habitually more criminal than either, in 
the eye of infinite purity and justice; and would be so pro 
nounced by any tribunal of perfectly honest men, who 
could take cognizance of all the motives, facts and circum- 
stances. That man, who will take any undue advantage 
of another in a bargain, or in any mode whatever, would 
steal or rob just as soon, if he could do it with equal hrnipui 
and safety. Nothing does, nothing can, nothing ever will 
restrain any mortal from any indulgence, pursuit, gain 01 
abomination which he covets, and to which no disgrace is 
attached, except the fear of God — or, what is the same 
'hing, religious principle. The most ignorant pagans. 



3tf> 

as well as the most enlightened sages on earth, are restrained 
by this fear, or by this principle, whether they are con- 
scious of it or not. I mean so far as they act from principle 
at all — and without reference to human laws or opinions. 
The salutary and restraining influence of religion extends, 
in fact, throughout the world. It is daily felt in all the re- 
lations of life. It is apparent in the whole texture and 
organization of human society. All the peace, comfort, 
virtue and felicity in the world, or which have ever been 
in the world, flow, and have flowed, from religion. In pro- 
portion as pure religion prevails, in the same proportion do 
we behold human nature approximating the purity, happi- 
ness, dignity and glory of angels. And in proportion as it 
is any where neglected, opposed, despised, in the same 
degree do vice, ignorance and misery abound. This is a 
fact obvious to every man's observation. 

It is absurd for any man to pretend to reject religion 
altogether, because he is, in spite of himself, religious or 
superstitious, in some form or other, whether his views be 
right or wrong. It is madness and cruelty, because, were 
it possible for him to banish religion from our world, he 
would put an end to civil government, to social order and 
to social existence. 

I shall not attempt to tell you what religion implies or 
inculcates; nor, of the many religions in the world, which 
is the best. The worst is better than none. I have no fear 
that any religion whatever will be preferred to the christian. 
I have no fear that any man, who honestly and soberly ex- 
amines the records and the charter of our religion, will ever 
fail to acknowledge its paramount claims, and to practise, at 
least to approve, its precepts. And this is all that I now 
urge. Study the Bible faithfully and prayerfully, and you 
will learn what true religion is. All who do this, with a 
proper temper and spirit, will agree in essential points of 
doctrine, as well as in the essential rules of conduct. All 
who diligently study the Bible — from the Roman Catholic 
to the Quaker — will think and act alike in all things which 
are important, and they will never contend about unimpor- 
tant forms or questions. Were the Bible resorted to for 
our theology and our ethics, instead of human teachers 01 



37 

systems, all bigotry, fanaticism, uneharitableness and per 
secution would disappear from the christian world. Igno- 
rance of the Bible is the prolific source, not only of error 
and superstition, but of all that demon spirit of party and 
sectarism which rages among those who profess the same 
faith, and which keeps asunder brethren of the same family. 

It assuredly ill becomes those who are liberally educated 
to be illiberal and intolerant on the subject of religion, or 
to manifest illiberal hostility against it. Nor would such 
an anomaly ever be witnessed, were our scholars to study 
the Bible as carefully and profoundly as they study, or pro- 
fess to study human science and philosophy. Simply as an 
integral part of a liberal education, it demands the most 
thorough investigation. What right have men to dispute 
and dogmatize about religion, when, in truth, they know 
little or nothing of the Bible, which alone can teach it ? 
Who is the self-sufficient bigot, that deals out anathemas 
against all who do not adopt the same peculiar phraseology 
and the same ceremonial with himself? Who is the sneer- 
ing captious skeptic, who is ever railing at the hypocrisy, 
the credulity, the superstition, the weakness, or the incon- 
sistency of christians — as if these were the genuine fruits 
of Christianity, or constituted any part of its character? 
Who is it that deliberately intrenches himself within the 
strong holds of his own understanding, and affects to yield 
to the dictates and discoveries of reason, and to do homage 
to the dignity of human nature at the expense of revela- 
tion ? Who is it that denounces the Bible as containing 
unintelligible mysteries and dogmas — as imposing rules and 
precepts too strict and severe for frail humanity — as pre- 
senting sanctions, and threatening penalties, revolting to 
infinite justice and goodness ? They are to a man, ignorant 
of the Bible, and of the heavenly spirit which pervades it. 
They must be sent to school, before they can be reasoned 
with. 

Happily, the reign of atheism has passed away. And 
the fopperies of infidelity are no longer in fashion. Men 
of sense are ashamed to avow the one, or to exhibit the 
other. Multitudes, however, at the present day, — and 
those too, frequently, among the most intelligent and influ- 



38 

cntial members oi' society — appear desirous to stand on 
neutral ground. Not aware, perhaps, that the thing is im- 
possible. They neither oppose nor profess the christian 
religion. They give themselves very little concern about 
the matter. They live under its general influence, and 
participate in its general charities, and seem to fancy them- 
selves exempt from its more immediate and authoritative 
control; so long as they do not submit to the discipline of 
any particular church. As if it were at their option to obey 
or to disobey the divine command — to be religious or irre- 
ligious — to admit or reject as much or little of religion's 
precepts as may comport with their inclination or imaginary 
interest. Now, this is most egregious trifling with reason 
and duty — with themselves and their Maker. Young per- 
sons easily yield to these delusions, and are apt to think 
that religion is not designed for them, and that it ill becomes 
them. Or that it will render them miserable, or singular, 
or unfit for the business and concerns of the world. I pass, 
however, all this sophistry, all these prejudices, misappre- 
hensions and difficulties, and again refer you to the Bible 
for instruction. 

If man was made to be religious — and that he was, uni- 
versal experience proves beyond the possibility of a doubt: 
if, without religion, he is both worthless and wretched — and 
that he is, the same experience as fully demonstrates; then 
is religion necessary, and equally necessary to all men. It 
is equally binding on all men — on the lawyer, the physician, 
the statesman, the soldier, the youthful student — as on the 
clergyman, the saint, or the sage of four score. It does not 
consist in particular acts or ceremonies, nor is it restricted, 
in its operations and influence, to particular times, places 
and occasions. It regulates the temper, reigns in the heart, 
and keeps alive the spirit of devotion, of purity and love, 
wherever we go, or whatever may be our worldly vocation. 
In every human pursuit or station, religion supplies the only 
true principle of action, and points out the only legitimate 
ways and means of success. Happy the man, who, in every 
undertaking, in every purpose, and during all his exertions 
and trials, can devoutly look to God for direction, for assist- 
ance, for wisdom, for a paternal blessing. 



39 

Finally, be courageous. Dare to be honest, just, mag- 
nanimous, true to your God, to your country, to yourselves, 
and to the world. Dare to do to others as you would have 
them do to you. Most men are cowards. They are afraid 
to speak and to act, when duty calls, and as duty requires 
I recommend courage as a great and a rare virtue. Few 
men will suffer themselves to be called cowards; and yet 
they betray their cowardice by the very course they take 
to avenge the insult. A man may intrepidly face the can- 
non's mouth, and be an arrant coward after all. There is a 
higher, a nobler courage, than was ever displayed in the 
heat of battle, or on the field of carnage. 

There is a moral courage, which enables a man to tri- 
umph over foes more formidable than were ever marshalled 
by any Csesar. A courage which impels him to do his 
duty — to hold fast his integrity — to maintain a conscience 
void of offence toward God and toward men — at every 
hazard and sacrifice — in defiance of the world, and of the 
prince of the world. Such was the courage of Moses, of 
Joseph, of Daniel, of Aristides, of Phocion, of Regulus, of 
Paul, of Luther, of Washington. Such is the courage 
which sustains every good man, amidst the temptations, al- 
lurements, honours, conflicts, opposition, ridicule, malice, 
cruelty, persecution, which beset and threaten him at every 
stage of his progress through life. It is not a noisy, obtru- 
sive, blustering, boastful courage, which pushes itself into 
notice when there is no real danger, but which shrinks 
away when the enemy is at the door. It is calm, self-pos- 
sessed, meek, gentle, peaceful, unostentatious, modest, re- 
tiring; but when the fearful hour ar-rives, then you shall 
behold the majesty of genuine christian courage, in all her 
native energy and grandeur, breathing the spirit of angelic 
purity, and grasping victory from the fiery furnace or the 
lions' den; when not one of all the millions of this world's 
heroes would have ventured to share her fortune. 

I fear God, and I have no other fear — is the sublimes! 
sentiment ever felt or uttered by mortal man. 

May each of you, beloved youth, living and dying, be 
enabled, in sincerity, before the Searcher of hearts, to ex- 
claim, — I fear God, and I have no other fear. 



APPENDIX. 



The average number of students in the four regular classes of the university has gen- 
erally been between seventy and eighty. These classes are so divided and subdivided, 
for the purposes of study and recitation, that every individual is enabled and constrain- 
ed toadvance according to his actual ability. Such a variety in their studies and pur- 
suits is provided, as to promote cheerful exertion, without distracting or confusing the 
mind. There are only two vacations in the year— consisting of five and a half weeks 
each— the one commencing on the first Wednesday in April, and the other on the first 
Wednesday in October. There are no intermediate holidays: and no vacation is allowed 
to theaeniorClass, previously to graduation, as is customary at other colleges. As there 
are no honours or prizes to animate a few to extraordinary efforts, and to criscourage the 
majority altogether, so the whole are very desirous to avail themselves of every privi- 
lege up to the last moment of their collegiate life: and they find no difficulty in prepar- 
ing appropriate exercises for the public Commencement. 

This is believed to be ihe first college in the Union, and is still probably the only one, 
which has utterly discarded the old system of honorary premiums and distinctions, as 
incentives to industry and scholarship. This species of emulation and excitement is 
here unknown. Each individual is encouraged and assisted in making the best possible 
use of his time and talents; and in acquiring knowledge for its own sake and for future 
usefulness. At the close of each session or half year, all the classes are publicly exam- 
ined on the studies of the previous session. These examinations usually occupy seven 
or eight days, and are conducted with such rigorous strictness and impartiality that it is 
impossible for ignorance or idleness to escape detection and exposure. Here is a fair op- 
portunity for lire exhibition of talent and superior scholarship, and for the attainment of 
whatever applause or reputation may be spontaneously conferred by those who witness 
their performances.* This kind and degree of stimulus is both natural and salutary, 
and may be felt by all. The Faculty are spared the invidious task of awarding honours 
or of graduating a scale of merit. No aspiring youth is impelled by the hope of a prize 
to undue and dangerous exertions; and none are subjected to the mortification of disap- 
pointed ambition or of an inequitable decision. This is not the place to enlarge on these 
topics. — But from a long experimental acquaintance with the ancient usage in other in- 
stitutions, and from an eight years' trial of the present system here, 1 do not hesitate to 
give the latter a most decided preference. A much larger proportion of every class be- 
come good scholars — and much greater peace, harmony, contentment, order, industry 
and moral decoium prevail — than it had ever been my lot to remark at seminaries east 
of the mountains. 

No departments, exclusively for Law, Medicine or Theology, have as yet been estab- 
lished. Much, however, that is usually considered as peculiar to each of these profes- 
sions, is taught as part of the college course. The Trustees have wisely consulted the 
welfare of the great body of their fellow citizens, by making provision, in the first in- 
stance, for such instruction as would be generally beneficial. They are aware that Ihe 
learned professions — at least, those of Law and Medicine — are already crowded to ex- 
cess, and that the eagerness of youth to engage in them ought rather to be checked than 
encouraged. They are aware also, that, in proportion to the diffusion of knowledge 
among the people, the necessity for professional services of particular kinds will be di- 
minished. To the farmers, therefore, they principally direct their regards. To elevate 
agriculture to the first rank among professions and occupations is their aim. They have 
already expended twenty thousand dollars in the purchase of a philosophical apparatus — 
a mineralogical cabinet of ten thousand specrmens— a museum of natural history — arrd 
in furnishing a well constructed chemical laboratory. Besides employing able prufessors 
in every branch of physical and experimental science — so that the young farmer, even 
though he should nut find it convenient to prosecute a regular college course, may at least 
become an accomplished scientific agriculturist. Here too, in like manner, the youthful 
mechanic, merchant or manufacturer may have the privilege of learning whatever will 
be advantageous to their several vocations. Youth then may be amply qualified here 
either to enter upon the study of a learned profession, or to engage in any useful business 
or employment. 

It is contemplated however, in' due time, and whenever the pecuniary resources of the 
institution will justify the measure, to establish Faculties, for the learned professions. — 
To gentlemen who now do honour to the bar, the bench, the pulpit, and the healing art, 
iir Tennessee, the university respectfully appeals for that generous patronage which will 
enable her to train upsuccessors worthy to occupy their places, when they shall be gath- 
ered to their fathers. 



*Itis not to be understood that any formal opinion of the audience is expressed or pub- 
licly announced on these occasions. Each individual exeicises his own judgment, and 
utters it when and where and in such fashion as he pleases. The students appear before 
the same kind of tribunal and are subjected to the same kind of award as are the lawyer 
and the preacher, the demagogue and the philosopher, and all other men during life. 



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